During our past trips to the Bahamas, it always seemed to be that we arrived in Florida just in time to MISS a wonderful weather window across to the islands. So this year we decided to leave a week earlier in hopes of an immediate crossing.
We left Canada on Friday Oct. 5th and spent a wonderful “Thanksgiving” weekend in Traverse City Mi. with our daughter and her little family before heading south down the I-75 to Florida. When we arrived at Westland Marina--where our boat was securely tied down on the hard--we were happy to find “Fortnight” in excellent condition. The de-humidifier we had plugged in 5 months earlier was happily humming away, and the interior of the boat was bone-dry, clean and welcoming. After opening the ports to air out the cabin, putting away clothing, and making up the bed with freshly laundered sheets and new plump pillows, we headed off to our favourite Italian restaurant for a great dinner with lots of chilled wine. We were here! Settled in! And tomorrow the boat would be launched!
We rose early the next morning and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at a local diner before heading off to buy bottles of wine, cases of coke and cartloads of groceries which we stowed away in every conceivable nook and cranny of the boat. Supplies here in the US are much cheaper and readily available than they are in the Bahamas, so we always stock up with as much of our favourite items as possible before heading offshore. The next day we hanked on the sails and made a quick trip into Melbourne for boat parts.
And on Sunday, our 4th day here, with provisioning complete, all systems “go” and the boat washed down, we looked at “weather” and were happy to see a “window” for the Bahamas opening for Friday Oct. 19th--just 5 days away--exactly the time needed to make the trip down to stage our departure at the Lake Worth inlet. It looked like we finally “got it right” this year.
The next morning, Oct.15th we cast off our lines and motored on out into the ICW. We tested the autopilot along the way and after a few glitches Vince had it working perfectly. 35miles later we cruised on into the Banana River where we spent our first night at anchor. And the next morning we were up early for the 2nd leg of the journey--this time to Vero Beach. We normally spend LOTS of time here “waiting for weather” and meeting up with friends. But this year the anchorage was virtually deserted because it was so early in the boating “season”. Because we were so rushed for time, we took a slip rather than tying up to a mooring ball. This made it much easier to get on and off the boat to pick up a few last minute items in town, do the laundry, check weather on WiFi and lash the dinghy onto the bow of the boat for the trip across the gulf stream. Early the next morning we were off once again--this time for Hobe Sound. That night, because we had no internet access out at anchor, we called our friends Margo and Dennis who had a condo on Lake Worth, to tell them our plans and ask them to do a final check of weather for us. And shortly after noon the next day, we dropped our hook just off the Lake Worth Inlet--right on schedule--ready to head out through the weather window 16 hours later.
Despite the blistering heat and stifling humidity that had been plaguing this part of Florida all week, actual crossing conditions still looked ideal. There was no northerly component to the wind, which was light at less than 10knots from the SW and wave heights were a manageable 3’. It should be an easy smooth crossing to Westend and on t0 Great Sale the next day. But then Chris Parker--our weather guru--started talking about a heavy band of squalls with gusts up to 35k crossing directly across the path we had intended to take across the gulf stream and NOAA predicted the possibility of thunderstorms later in the day. And so we had a hard decision to make. After all this preparation, would we still “take a chance?” Vince left it up to me. And I just couldn’t say yes. The rest of the afternoon and early evening was very depressing. We kept checking weather and 2nd guessing ourselves. But in the end, with heavy hearts, we went to bed knowing that the crossing just wasn’t going to happen this time and accepting the fact that it could be weeks before we’d get another chance.
The next morning, the day we would’ve left at 4:30am, I awoke at 6:00 to rumblings of thunder and flashes of light out over the gulf stream. Had we not erred on the side of caution we would’ve been right in the middle of it at that time, alone, in the dark struggling to keep the boat afloat in a raging storm. Thank god we decided to wait! Immediately upon seeing those horrible conditions yesterdays long depression was replaced by a sense of euphoria and relief that we were here, still at anchor, safe and sound and snug in our boat with breakfast and cocoa and friends in a condo nearby!
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